a paper about my exploration in connection a little with my past.

Paper #2

With every click of the mouse, technology amazes me even more.  The things that are being done on the internet with software today can improve everyday activities within school, work, or your personal life.  Learning about each possibility out there is something that will only be a positive asset to moving up in the world.  As technology is advancing the only thing to do is to learn as much as is possible and to learn using them with something that is of interest will only help to keep the progress of technology going. 

Gymnastics is a huge part of my past and my childhood, being I spent about 8 years in the sport.  I started gymnastics when I was 5 years old, and it seemed to come very easy to me right away.  Having tried many other team sports, I felt I had found my groove when I started gymnastics.  I reached the competitive level by the time I was 8 years old.  In gymnastics a gymnast will start competing compulsory routines in levels 5-7 and optional routines in levels 8-10.  After level 10, you will be considered an Elite athlete, such as gymnasts who compete in the Olympics.   I never made it that far, but when I was just entering high school I was currently competing at Level 9.  I was spending four hours per day, six days per week in the gym, and it was basically my second home. I didnt really have time for friends or anything else so at that time I decided I would like to take part in high school sports, and I quit gymnastics to see what else was out there.  Looking back on that now, it is probably my biggest regret.  I love the sport of gymnastics, and even though I

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never stuck it out to see how far I could have gone, I still enjoy watching and following the sport. 

            As an activity, gymnastics goes back a long ways in history.  It is thought that ancient Greeks and Romans practiced the sport of gymnastics over 2000 years ago, and it was also included in some early type of Olympic games around this time.  The sport was lost for awhile until military armies brought it about again in the 19^th century in their activities to build themselves up. 

            The development of modern gymnastics as we know it today, was started by Pehr Henrik Ling and Friederich Ludwig Jahn.  Then immigrants such as Charles Beck, Charles Follen and Francis Lieber brought the sport to the United States and into the schools in the 1830s.  In the U.S., the Amatuer Athletic Union took complete control of gymnastics in 1883, along with most other sports.  Before this, all competitions were held by private clubs and organizations.  The first large-scale competition involving gymnastics was the 1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece, which only consisted of Mens events.  The events were horizontal bars, pommel horse, rings, and vault.  Women were not included in Olympic gymnastics until 1928.  The asymmetrical bars, floor, beam, and vault were the four events quickly developed into womens gymnastics.

The United States of America Gymnastics (USAG) was developed in 1970 and became the National Governing Body of the sport and still remains today. Since then many sub-divisions of gymnastics have been formed and well recognized in the U.S. These individual disciplines include Mens Artistic

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Gymnastics, Womens Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Sports Acrobatics, Competitive Sports Aerobics and General Gymnastics.

            The internet and technology in general provide so many endless opportunities today.  Opportunities to help with work, personal leisure, school, and anything else that might come up.  So many programs have been invented and improved upon for the benefit of everyone with the knowledge to make use of it.  These programs include web pages, Flash, powerpoint, iMovies, CAD, and the list goes on.  Each program can be used to improve ones knowledge or to show the knowledge already learned in a more advanced way.

            The iMovie is a program intended for easy editing to make your own movie masterpieces.  Time magazine says that iMovie is perfect for beginners  so basic that it doesnt have a manual, or need one. This tool for movie making encourages so much creativity and makes it doable.  With iMovie, one can cut and paste scenes, add special effects, and even sound to make their personal movie the best it could ever be.  Once the editing is done, the movie can be taken back to the tape, or put on the internet for an instant movie theatre in which to show your new film.  All this being said, cost seems like it would be a major concern with such a great program and with this amazing software.  However, the Apple iMovie is the most affordable software out there.  Now being a film-maker can be fun and cheap. 

Making an effective movie has many positive uses within school, work, and personal leisure.  Using technology in school projects is becoming a

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necessary task today.  It seems at this point, it is only an option to make an A project by using new programs in technology, but soon enough it will be the only way to go.  It is hard to compete with the new technology being used by just writing a normal paper in college.  Using new techniques and being able to add in your own personal creativity to say the same things is much more appealing.  Not only more appealing to the professor and to the colleagues, but it also turns out to be so much more interesting to make and put together for each student.  The fact that students will be interested is key for later in life in that they will take this knowledge of the advancements in technology that they used and bring it to their profession. 

            Many professions, such as the profession I plan to go into, entail giving presentations and using the newest technology will be necessary.  Using an iMovie to present an idea or give an introduction to an idea would be a great way to get the audience interested.  With all the different effects and creative possibilities available, a boring topic can be improved upon instantly and fairly easily also.  I plan to be an architect someday, and I know that by then most everything will be taken care of on the computer.  I will go to conferences, galleries, and presentations, and need to bring information back to the rest of the team in my firm.  I believe that an iMovie would be a wonderful way to show the information I have learned in a very organized and creative way.  Knowledge of the software in iMovies and how to use it would be an asset to many professions today and most definitely for me and my profession, in the future.   

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Last year for Christmas we received a video tape from my Grandpa.  He had taken all the films from my mom and her siblings growing up and put them together in VHS form.  Now, we have video cameras and programs such as iMovie to make digital video camera tapes into great movies.  Using iMovie for personal leisure may be the most profitable part of the software altogether.  Many families today use digital video cameras, and what better way to remember those special times than in a perfect movie that you created yourself!  A digital video camera is a great way to capture sightseeing on trips, your childs first goal playing soccer, or simply your loved one blowing out their birthday candles. Then you can take all these special moments on different tapes and put them all together and use it for Christmas gifts just like my Grandpa did with his films from the 1960s. This is just an overview of a few ways that iMovie can be used for simply personal use. I cant wait to see what technology I will have to capture those Kodak moments of my kids growing up!

            Learning about the iMovie was the simplest part, taping was the most fun, and using the program was the most interesting.  Researching the software and the process of making an iMovie made it seem like the project would be a breeze.  The steps to create and use the software were very laid out at  www.apple.com.  The next step was researching my topic, gymnastics, and the history of the sport.  Then I took a digital video camera to American Gold Gymnastics here in Fargo.  Renting the camera was sort of a hassle, and also buying the tape and making sure I had the right equipment was unknown territory

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for me.  After I did some taping, I ran into some problems with the computers.  Luckily NDSU has very helpful staff and students willing to help out students like me who are just learning about new technology. I was amazed with all the possibilities in iMovie.  I couldnt believe how easy it was to put a clip in slow motion, add words or transitions, copy and paste, and even reverse it.  Although it is an easy program to use, the process does take a while, and is a little time consuming.  Thankfully, technology is improving every day and I wouldnt doubt it if the computers become quicker with the program as technology advances. 

            This project has been very time consuming, but entirely worth-while.  The whole time I worked on it, I couldnt wait to see the final outcome.  I am going into architecture simply for the satisfaction I will feel when I see a building or house built and know that I created it.  I feel the same sort of satisfaction here in this project and that is why I think it is a great program and should be used more often. I had never even heard of this iMovie software before this class, but I am so glad I did because I know it will be a helpful aid to me in many fields in the future.  As technology is advancing I hope that I can advance with it and learn as much as possible while I have the opportunity to do so.

 Whats the purpose of a weblog anyways? I was asking myself this question probably ten times a day during the first week or so of school.  I had signed up for an English class and there I was learning how to use the computer.  It confused me at first, when I went to the book store to pick up the four books I was told by the computer at home that I needed, and they told me I actually didnt need any books at all for the class I was enrolled in.  This excited me at first because I really wasnt too anxious to be reading huge novels and doing twenty page reports on the literal meaning of them.  Then, when I was told the class would take place for the most part on the computer, I was a little nervous.  In my high school, the only class we used computers in was keyboarding in like ninth grade.  I knew how to go online and check my email and that was about it.  In the next couple weeks I realized that computers and the internet were going to be the key to my survival here in college.

             It all started with the weblogs, so I told myself that I would learn that and be doing just fine.  Wow did I ever get a slap in the face for that one.  In three of my other classes I was told to enroll on Blackboard to retrieve my syllabi and assignments and so on. Then I was expected to set up my NDSU email account, along with a personal account and I just felt completely overwhelmed. 

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Weblogging was just the beginning and looking back on that now, Im sure glad I was required to learn about it, because it helped me so much in the coming tasks ahead of me.

 Technology has come so far just in the few years I went through high school.  I am upset that my high school was not  more up to date with technology in that I never really had the chance to use computers to their full extent.  They really offer so much information and so many possibilities have been  opened up to everyone with access. All these services are free, and all of them are designed to enable individuals to publish their own weblogs quickly and easily. (Blood 1) After learning this information I almost want to scream it from the rooftops so that everyone can take advantage of the programs that are available to them.  I think that as I proceed through my college career, my knowledge and use of computers and the internet will grow entirely.

As I stated, computers are becoming a huge part of our education and I think that weblogs could be a great way to help students use the internet more with their school work.  If a student is online searching the web and finding notes and facts for an essay paper or a research paper, it  is so nice to have a journal or note cards right on the computer.  Instead of needing to use more paper, and take more time to write everything out, the weblogs could be used as a note taking device.  Also, this could be applied to subjects such as sciences or mathematics.  Everyone knows that notes for these subjects are very

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important and weblogging your notes could keep them more organized and in a place where you know you can always find them.

Using this method for learning seems to be a great way to keep organized and keep your learning skills to their best.  I would think that teaching weblogging in the earlier education could be a good asset to every student for the rest of their furthering education.  In grade school, I can remember learning to play Oregon Trail on the computer and also learning to type.  What a better way to learn to type than learning to start your own personal journal online.  This way kids can write things that they enjoy writing about while learning the basics. 

One of the programs that weblogs also offer is a filtering system.  The web has been, in effect, pre-surfed for [them].  (Blood 2)  This way students can use the internet even more easily than simply using a search engine.  Information that the users may need for projects, essays, reports, or simply for the users own knowledge can be found without so many WWW. errors.  I have not taken advantage of this program yet, but Im sure I will use it extensively in the next few years.  Once again Rebecca Blood states yet another positive part of filters, A filter-style weblog provides many advantages to its readers.  It reveals glimpses of an unimagined web to those who have no time to surf. (4)  Every bit of information a person could ever need to find, is on the internet, and now with these new advancements, they can all be found without a huge hassle. 

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Weblogging seemed to me like just another task in the beginning.  I understood that we needed to go online and blog about the articles we read

and so on. I did not however understand the concept that we could use our blog pages for personal journaling also.  As I became more comfortable with blogging altogether I began to put in entries that had to do with me, personally.  Now, I find myself rushing to the computer to type in my ideas just as they come to me. One article states that weblogs can be used whenever.  Whether its updated daily, weekly or whenever the owner damn well feels like it.  And thats the point. (Barrett 2) I love that I have somewhere to post my ideas before they even have a chance to escape me and it is easy to put in more than one entry each day.  Another great thing about weblogging your personal thoughts and stories is that you can open them up for other people to enjoy also.  Getting feedback is a great feeling when youve written something you feel passionate about in anyway at all.  Reading other peoples blog pages also helps me to feel more comfortable with my entries and the fact that they are on the internet.  I have found that weblogging is something I think I will continue even after this class is completed. 

                        In learning about weblogs, I have decided they could be used in any way that you choose to use them.  Weblogs are referred to as the proliferation of public diaries, (Dvorak ) and then to contradict that opinion, weblogs are described as a web page where a weblogger logs all the other web pages she finds interesting. (Barger 1)   In every article that we read, each author

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felt a different way about weblogs.  Some thought that they were a great way to journal online.  Others thought they were a scam and just a bandwagon issue,

where people only joined because they were the new thing. Dvorak also states a few reasons why he believes people may have the urge to blog.  These possibilities are:  ego gratification, antidepersonalization, elimination of frustration, societal need to share, or simply because they want to be writers.   I believe that a person can take the opportunity of weblogs and use them any way that is applicable to them.  This way each person can get the most out of their weblog experience. 

Weblogging has already taught me how to express my thoughts in a more organized way and has helped open up my writing skills.  I feel so comfortable writing my thoughts and ideas on my page, that I find myself writing things better than I have ever written before.  Brainstorming has also become much easier for me, as I type my ideas into my page just as they come to me.  The computer is so accessible that anybody could find these same positive outcomes from using the weblog system.  

I know that in my future I will be using weblogs to the fullest of their extent, to get the most satisfaction from them.  All of the factors that I have pointed out referring to the weblog system have only given more reason to use and love the things.  I am sure that there are some negative points, but I guess Im not too keen on focusing on that right now.  They really do have so much to

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offer pertaining to my personal life, my college learning, my study skills, and my writing as a person.  These weblogs should be used by everyone for whatever

they really want to, because I think that that is their specialty. Are weblogs becoming a huge part of our future? Well if you ask me, I sure hope so!